The Bonny Eagle wrestling team was a big winner in a tri-meet with Lake Region and Kennebunk Wednesday night, beating the Lakers, 52-15 and the Rams, 46-24. Kennebunk beat Lake Region, 37-12.

More important than the final team totals, though, were some individual performances. As the season approaches the homestretch, all of the wrestlers were grappling for seeding positions and honing their takedown and escape moves.

Bonny Eagle’s Dan Avery lost, 8-6, in the heavyweight division (275) to Kennebunk’s Matt Foley, but he was happy with what he was able to accomplish in the match, especially considering he almost had to forfeit midway through because of a tweaked neck.

“I didn’t think it would be that close. Last year there was a really close match with him and my brother at 215. It went three overtimes and it was just a crazy match,” said Foley, who lost to Lake Region’s Steve Chadwick later in the night. “I just need to work harder for when I see him next time, probably in the regionals.”

Jarred Stiles normally wrestles at 145, but Bonny Eagle coach Brooks Clark asked him to wrestle up a class, at 152. He accepted the challenge and beat Kennebunk’s Rob Roulliard on a pin with 43 seconds to go in the second round.

“There’s not a big difference, but I can definitely tell the difference because I’ve been wrestling a while and I can tell the difference,” said Stiles, who won by forfeit at 145 against Lake Region. “I have a new takedown that I’ve started getting into, and today showed me that I can definitely switch to that.”

Clark was happy with the way Max Dunzik was able to beat Kennebunk’s Bill Legere at 140 pounds. Dunzik nearly pinned Legere at the end of the first round, but the buzzer interfered. He ended up winning, 11-2, and then later won by forfeit against Lake Region.

“It was tough. Kennebunk’s got some tough kids. They’re just hard-nosed, they go out there and they wrestle hard,” said Dunzik. “I felt real good. I was pumped today. Today was going to be a big day. I needed this match. It was a key match for seedings. Everybody needs to win their matches from here on out. This will bump me up to the top three in the region.”

The Scots other wins against Kennebunk came from Dan Santos (125 pounds), who pinned Jeff Viera with five seconds left in the first round, and Jack Lovell (130), Dan Wiley (145), Corey Byrnes (171) and Dalton Groeger (103) by forfeit.

Kennebunk got wins from Steve Ciampa (135), who pinned Matt Beckwith; Kirk Metayer (160), who pinned Alex Truslow; Raistlin Delisle (189), who pinned Nick Bickford; and Ralph Leach (215), who beat Behn Brooks, 9-3.

In the second battle of the evening, between Lake Region and Kennebunk, there were only five weight classes that had matches.

“There’s been ups and downs. I work pretty light in terms of not filling many weight classes, so it’s pretty tough (this season),” said Lake Region coach Paul St. John. “And we only had two returning, so it’s even harder.”

The Lakers’ only win came at 152 pounds, where Marty Hawkins pinned Roulliard with 1:39 to go in the third round.

“I practiced hard, came out good, and I just hit him with a good quarter and pinned him,” he said, recalling the match. “He was a good opponent, and I practice for this type of thing, so I was happy to win.”

The Lakers won by forfeit at 171 and lost by forfeit at 125, 140 and 215. Meanwhile, Josh Rutland (135) lost 14-4; Bretty Jauss (160) lost by pin; Chris Cutting (189) lost by pin; and Chadwick (275) lost to Foley, 6-2.

“I think some of the kids, particularly my heavyweight, throughout the year he doesn’t have many tough matches,” said St. John. “There’s really nobody big on our team who can push him, so it’s really tough in that aspect. We’ll have to be more creative in terms of getting him more practice.”

Chadwick did beat Avery in his second match of the day. Against Bonny Eagle, the Lakers also got wins from Hawkins (by pin) and Cutting (by pin).

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